Spinal misalignments and related problems may be caused by poor bedding, improperly designed chairs, and the like. In most cases, the abnormality is easily corrected while still in its postural stage; correction becomes a little more problematic if the misalignment goes untreated and enters the structural stage.
Therapists have long relied upon appliances to help correct both postural and structural deformities. The appliance applies pressure at specific locations on the patient's body to gently urge the spine to return to its normal configuration.
The appliance may take the form of a seat cushion because a well-designed seat cushion positions the patient's body so that it is properly anchored; this anchoring provides a base that helps the rest of the spine to straighten.
Alternatively, the appliance may take the form of a corset or vest; appliances of that type wrap around the patient's trunk and gently persuade the spine to correct its alignment.
For example, a lumbar-sacral corset is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,933 to Batard. It includes the use of foam padding and hook and loop-type fastening members to facilitate its adjustment.
A seat cushion having utility in this field is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,788 to Lonardo; it is particularly adapted to anchor a patient's pelvic region while preventing the formation of decubitus ulcers.
Other earlier disclosures of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 3,362,402 to Loeffel et. al., and German patent No. 2,132,146.
The appliances heretofore known have utility and represented advances in the art at the time of their invention. However, none of the devices heretofore known can adequately treat the entire panoply of spinal and related deformities and misalignments. The known appliances do not fit people of differing body sizes, do not fit the exact contour of a chair that supports the appliance, cause patient discomfort because heat is trapped within the appliance, and are not easily adjustable to facilitate treatment of all conditions. The devices heretofore known also lack adequate means for maintaining the patient's head and neck in a therapeutic position and for abducting the patient's shoulders.
Moreover, the devices heretofore known lack means for properly positioning and comfortably anchoring the patient's pelvic and hip regions and for simultaneously properly and comfortably positioning, in a single device or framework, the patient's trunk region, head, neck, or shoulder girdle including the arms, hands, elbows, and forearms as needed.
The seat cushions of the prior art are not attachable to the corsets of the prior art and the head rests of the prior art are not attachable to the corsets. Accordingly, the seat cushions, corsets, and head rests heretofore known are not advantageously usable together. Just as importantly, the corsets and head rests of the prior art lack adequate means for adapting them to meet the specific requirements of individual patients. Adaptability is all-important in this field because no two people are exactly alike in body size and structure and no two people share the precise spinal deformity.
Thus, there is a need for a medical appliance that combines the best features of the prior art seat cushions, corsets, and head rests and that improves the corsets and head rests by being made fully adaptable to patients of all different sizes and spinal, shoulder, hand and arm conditions. Further improvement in devices for supporting patient's hands is also needed. In a broader sense, what is needed is a device that not only treats the spine and pelvic regions, but which gives full consideration to the entire upper trunk as well, including the upper extremities and the cervical spine.
There is a further need for a device that is easy to use and comfortable to the patient as well, but the prior art, when considered as a whole in accordance with the requirements of law, neither teaches nor suggests to those of ordinary skill in the art how the needed medical appliance could be provided.